Vacancies in state human rights commission: SC notice to Centre

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and several states on a plea against the delay in filling up the vacancies in the state human rights commission (SHRCs).

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud sought the response of Ministry of Home Affairs and 16 states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and others on a plea filed by retired lecturer Jammula Choudariah.

In his plea filed through advocate Sravan Kumar, Choudariah said that currently there were no chairpersons in 10 states while posts of members were lying vacant in many states.

"State of Andhra Pradesh has been committing atrocities on farmers, people and even women by using hundreds of police persons to execute projects, acquiring lands for private companies, stopping the people from conducting protests, rallies etc which is violation of Article 19, 21 of Constitution of India. Similar situation is prevailed in State of Telangana.

"There has been common state commission for both states but for the past one year chairman and member posts are lying vacant. Andhra Pradesh SHRC office exists in Hyderabad without chairman and member and in case of Telangana there is no commission itself," the plea said.

The plea sought directions to the states to appoint chairmen and members of State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) according to the top court's 2015 directions and direct National Human Rights Commission to proceed with the complaints wherever SHRCs were not functioning.

The apex court on July 24, 2015 had directed the states of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland to set up state human rights commissions within a period of six months.

It had also said that all vacancies, for the post of chairperson or the member of SHRC wherever they exist at present shall be filled up by the state governments concerned within a period of three months.